First time build - Baritone Tele

[Haro311]

Hello everyone,

Have been looking forward to get started on this. So I ordered the TLN-27M 27” maple tele neck along with a GTL-body Ash tele body and brass nut.

Here are the photos of the dry build




The neck pocket has a lot more clearance than I had expected, to get a tight fit I shimmed it with the two plectrums that came in the box.

neck pocket is 57.5mm wide and the neck is 56mm wide

Ideally I didn’t want to fit a scratch plate on this guitar that would usually hide this a little.

My first question is, is this normal?
And the second is, how do I fix it? I’ve read about veneers being used to pack out pockets, should they be made from ash to match the body?

I plan to paint the body if that’s at all useful to know.

Thanks